Question 1

What is the best book to start with?

Accepted Answer

A translated section of Scivias with the interpretation that follows the vision, not a book of extracted sayings The method is vision plus reading. A postcard skips the reading, which is where the thought is.

Question 2

What is the most famous quote?

Accepted Answer

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Hildegard of Bingen that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “…when I was forty-two years and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain…” (Scivias, Declaration, trans. Hart and Bishop, 1990, p. 59, Paraphrase or translation).

Question 3

What is the most misquoted line?

Accepted Answer

No line filed for Hildegard of Bingen is marked Misattributed. The nearest doubt is Questionable, which is not the same thing: “I am a feather on the breath of God.” Hildegard uses feather imagery, borne on the breath or wind of God, in letters and visionary writing. The neat English proverb is a later compression. Do not cite it as a line that can be pointed to in Scivias without the Latin. The badge stays Questionable.

Question 4

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Accepted Answer

Vision interpreted: She claims visions and then builds a theological reading of them, so the pictures are not left as raw experience.